The list of scams these days is almost endless. Titusville Police Department Criminal Investigations Division Corporal Robert Holden explained several of them to a small group of seniors who gathered at the Titusville Public Library for an informational scam seminar.
“Some of the common frauds we see are the IRS, FP&L frauds, free vacations and prizes, fishing scams, tech support scams, people claiming to be relatives in trouble,” Holden said.
The list of people who have been scammed is almost endless, too – the elderly, especially.
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Holden asked the library group of seniors how many of them had been scammed. Almost everyone in the audience raised their hands.
Did that surprise him?
No.
Titusville Public Information Officer Amy Matthews coordinated the scam seminar.
“As educated as you can be, as smart as you can be, these people are amazingly just clever,” Matthews said. “And there are always updating their scams. They hone in on your vulnerabilities. They hone in on your fear.”
Matthews said seniors are the primary targets of scam artists. Her Criminal Investigations Division receives as many as 15 new cases per week involving thousands of dollars lost – just in the City of Titusville!
“So this is part of our strategy, to make sure the community is safe, to be proactive in letting you guys know what you can do to help us, trying to combat this,” Holden told the seniors.
Matthews said the police department warns on social media about scams but many seniors are not on social media.
“So there’s other ways,” Matthews said. “We go to churches, we go to events that might be able to let them feel more comfortable to talk to us.”
One senior attended the scam seminar at the library with two checks she’d just received in the mail as payment for the horse trailer she is selling online. Both checks are fake.
“I sold the horse trailer for a certain amount of money and when the checks came it was $1,650 more than the sale of the trailer,” the senior said. “So I texted him, ‘What is the additional amount of the text for?’ and he said, ‘So that you can cash it and pay the person who’s going to pick up the horse trailer, the hauler, pay him in cash.’”
Thankfully the senior became suspicious and called the banks that purportedly issued the checks.
“So I called both of the companies and they had never heard of the man who was supposedly buying this trailer from me,” the senior said. “I wanted to show everyone [at the scam seminar] how good they looked.”
Titusville Police said the most common thread in fraud investigations is that scam artists needed personal information to complete the scam – and got it.
Detectives said the single most important tip for seniors is to safeguard their information through email, social media, cell phone, mail, or even in person at their front door.
“In the long run it’ll probably be the safer thing that you do,” Holden said. “There’s nothing wrong with ending a conversation with someone and doing your due diligence before you continue having that conversation.”
Holden said most scam artists get access to seniors through a cell phone, either through a phone call, text message, email or social media message.
Not answering your phone unless the caller’s number is programmed in your phone is one sure way to protect yourself.
And rest assured that if you don’t answer your phone and it’s a legitimate call, the caller will leave you a voicemail.
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